This Is Spinal Tap - 25th Anniversary Edition [DVD]

I was recommended this film by a jazz musician from the Sixties. I had never heard of it before.So, as soon as I had some money, I ordered a Blu-ray disc. Since I live in India and the disc was Region B, it did not play and I eventually had to ask Amazon to replace it with a DVD. Yes, I had to wait a lot, but it was definitely worth it.This has to be the ultimate twentieth century rock group spoof I have seen! Anyone who has followed any rock 'n' roll group seriously would be able to relate to it, and see the junkyard that rock has become. The Extras of the movie have interviews that tell exactly from which rock group they took which particular element. But what they miss is the reference to The Beach Boys and The Moody Blues in the short fictional footage from the Sixties. It is amazing how they have tried to recreate the same audio/video quality from the Sixties, while the rest of the film is in Eighties.The short footage is a take on a lot of Sixties artists trying to jump on the psychedelic bandwagon: wear colorful clothes, sing about love and beauty and flower power, add a little bit of sitar here and there and you have a hit. I wonder how they miss the reference to Blue Öyster Cult, which is evident in the title of the film (note the 'n̈'). There is also a reference to Deep Purple, where David shouts 'Spinal Tap Mark Two!'Leaving aside the references to different bands, the film is primarily a spoof on British groups, because, well, 'all-the-good-stuff-comes-from-there.'It mocks the socialite circles that rock musicians have to go into, record labels, band managers, their attempt to boost sales because of racy covers, stage imagery, British rockers feeling unfettered once they enter the States and trying to be more wild. At another level, it traces the journey of rock from its beginnings in the Fifties, as the band members of Spinal Tap were in a skiffle rock group (very common in those days, and the story of almost every rocker in the Sixties), then in a psychedelic group (which mocks The Rolling Stones and The Moody Blues), then in a hard rock/heavy metal group like Priest or Maiden. The ending of the movie is a hilarious take on any-and-every rock group making it big in Japan. I could go on, because every shot in the film is a commentary on some or the other aspect of society and music industry.If you're interested in twentieth century pop/rock culture, you cannot do without this film.

Always loved this film so i saw it was inexpensive on Amazon. Now i can watch anytime i like.

The very pinnacle of 'mockumentaries'. To anyone who had witnessed (first hand or otherwise) the excesses of the 70s rock culture and then witnessed how bands tried to claw back a fan base (in the wake of the 'New Wave of - Brit - Heavy Metal'?) that had succumbed to punk and new wave (and the new romantics) in an almost suicidal belief in their own 'greatness', beggars belief in a first-time director. Only in 'The Princess Bride' did Reiner surpass his previous masterpiece.So much of the script rings so very true that one can almost believe it true. Were it not for the 'Stonehenge' stage set, the bowing of the guitar with an actual violin and the 'tragic' deaths of their legion of drummers, bordering on farce, one may conceive of it as simply that; farce.However, it did not take Reiner and his cohorts to craft a script that was only marginlly adrift of the reality.

Did Elton John watch this before making Tantrums and Tiaras? Did Madonna see it before making 'In Bed with Madonna'? Have Metallica watched this before releasing `Metallica' (the black album)? Did U2 see this before visiting Graceland in Rattle and Hum? Have Velvet Revolver watched it before forming a band?The humour throughout Spinal Tap is dry and observed rather than slapstick in your face and that is fine by me. Hissy fits about food, on stage pompous prop failure, the tuning of a violin used during a guitar solo, radio interference on stage, the constant replacement of drummers, getting lost on the way to the stage, the revival of the career in Japan, amplifiers that go to eleven, all the jokes and clichés are there, in fact I think this film may have invented a few.In much the same way that the British TV series `Drop the Dead donkey' character Damien Day successfully lampooned cliché overly self important `on the spot' news reporters, to the point where I struggle to take these `news hounds' seriously, I find it hard to take most TV `Rockumentary' programmes seriously as a result of Spinal Tap. Musicians and producers talking to camera about their `work' just isn't the same.Both influenced and influencing Spinal Tap is a work of comedy genius. Not many films have dialogue that enter the language, the phrase `its all a bit spinal tap' I have heard used in the media on countless occasions, and will be for years to come. There is little funnier in film or television when life imitates art, and art then imitates life to this degree. If we can see it, why can't they? All you need to enjoy this is a sense of humour.